The new BMW 6er saloon is a now a coupe - confusion.

[Scudetto]

This nonsense has got to stop.

A four door saloon is not a coupe. Even with a slammed roof line.

It is precisely this slicing and further dicing of car categories that's putting me off modern cars. They're increasing contrived by marketeers over engineers, designed to fill some hokey-pokey lifestyle niche-within-a-niche that exists only in the phoney minds of their creators.

Here, BMW presents a 'coupe'. That's right, a four door, three-box saloon, is now - in modern BMW parlance - a 'coupe'.

New BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe - New BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe - Photos - News - MSN Cars UK

Next; the fixed head convertible, the mono-box 'traditional three-box saloon', the booted hatchback, the four-door 'two door'...

BMW - are you blind? What on earth is 'coupe' about a three box, four door saloon?

Did BMW learn nothing about the 5er GT? A saloon that's not quite a saloon, nor the faux X6 it aped while being nothing like as useful as the 5er it's based on. This car (I believe) was pulled from the US market recently due to the market sensing a crock when they saw one.

I have no problem with this 6er - it looks ok - but I resent the abuse of categorisation for cheap market titillation.

[MalcQV]

It's a German thing. Passat CC, Mercedes CLS...

Mosr car makers' ranges are baffling these days. For the mainstream makers it used to be

Small hatch for the Mums (Fiesta)
Bigger hatch for the thrifty dads (Astra)
Full size saloon/hatch for the Dad who gets a company car (Mondeo)
Pointless big psuedo luxo barge for self employed builders (Senator)
Saloon derived coupe for dads who think they can still pull the birds (Capri)

Now the small hatch has got so big that they had to introduce another smaller hatch (or maybe 2) at the bottom of the range for mums and students. The slightly bigger hatch is as big as the full size used to be (and also comes with a high roof version that nobody really understands) and the full size one is ****ing massive. In addition you have to have a 4x4 (or possibly 2), something that looks like a 4x4 but isn't (crossover?), a people mover, a cabrio with a folding roof (that you say is your wife's) and something sold as a coupe but is vaguely reminiscent of a Volvo 480ES. The range now is:

Tiny hatch for students to spunk their student loans on (C1)
slightly bigger hatch for young girls and slightly camp young men (C2)
The original "small" hatch which is now massive (Fiesta)
The slightly bigger hatch which is now what people get as a company car (Focus)
The high roof version (Scenic)
The full size car which is now so big it won't fit in people's garages (Insignia)
The Psuedo 4x4 crossover (Quashqai)
The 4x4 (little 4x4 from VW, big 4x4 from VW)
The cabrio (don't know the names, just call it Focus cabrio)
The 480ES looky-likey (Scirocco, Volvo C30)

It's a wonder that anyone ever buys a new car because it's just baffling.

[michaelb]

Originally Posted by keithyboy

It's a wonder that anyone ever buys a new car because it's just baffling.

First class -

[harryf]

In fairness, the word Coupe simply means 'cut'. So it's just a term for a car which has had it's roofline cut, no reference to the number of doors. Those of us with long memories will remember the 4 door Rover P5B coupe which was much better looking than the saloon equivalent.

[RSK]

P5b = very cool car

[A-team]

You can be sure the model name for the differences will be a lie too. There will probably be a 3 liter diesel called 40d.